An essay on the history of civil society / [Adam Ferguson].

  • Adam Ferguson
Date:
1789
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the history of civil society / [Adam Ferguson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    408/438 page 398
    Sy8 {late has, by means that do not preferve the; virtue of the fubjecl , effectually guarded his fafety ; remilfnefs, and neglect of the public, are likely to follow ; and polifhed nations of every defeription, appear to encounter a danger, on this quarter, proportioned to the degree in which they have, during any continuance, en- joyed the uninterrupted polfeffion of peace and profperity. Liberty refults, we fay, from the government of laws; and we are apt to confider ftatutes, not merely as the refolutions and maxims of a people determined to be free, not as the writings by which their rights are kept on record; but as a power erected to guard them, and as a barrier which the caprice of man cannot tranfgrefs. When a balha, in Alia, pretends to decide every c.ontroverfy by the rules of natural equity, we allow that he is poffelfed of diferetionary powers. When a judge in Europe is left to decide, according to his own interpretation of written laws, is he in any fenfe more reltrained than the former ? Have the multiplied words of a llatute an influence oyer the confcience, and the heart, more powerful than that of reafon and nature? D oes the party, in any judicial proceeding, enjoy a lefs degree of fafety , when his rights are dil- cuffed, on the foundation of a rule that is open to the underftandings of mankind , than when they are referred to an intricate fyltem, which it has become the object of a feparate'profeffion to fludy and to explain?
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